Aspiration-I

What is meant by spiritual aspiration?
It means the aspiration towards spiritual things, spiritual experience, spiritual realisation, the Divine.

Are will and aspiration the same?
No, certainly not. Aspiration is a call to the Divine,—will is the pressure of a conscious force on Nature.

Is prayer the same as aspiration?
It is an expression of aspiration or can be. For there are prayers which only express a desire—e.g., prayers for wealth, worldly success, etc.

What is the difference between aspiration and opening?
They have nothing to do with each other, except that aspiration brings opening. Opening means that the consciousness becomes opened to the Truth or the Divine to which it is now shut—it indicates a state of receptivity. Aspiration is a call in the being, it is not opening.

Is the aspiration rising from the vital of the same nature as that rising from the heart?
No, the vital is dynamic, a call from the Life-force—that from the heart is either emotional or psychic.

Does the power of aspiration vary in different sadhaks according to their natures?
No. Aspiration is the same power in all; it differs only in purity, intensity and object.

Can a person with a weak will progress in sadhana by aspiration only?
No. He must either increase his will-power or call in a Higher Power to do it for him.

Can aspiration increase the will-power of a person whose will is weak?
Yes, it can—by calling in then Divine Will.

Why does aspiration become sometimes slow and sometimes rapid?
It is so with everyone—the nature cannot always go at a rapid pace.

If the nature cannot always go at a rapid pace why are we asked to remain constant in aspiration?
If you are not constant in aspiration, the nature will then sink back into the old lower ways.

Will a sadhak who feels neither any intense aspiration nor any acute resistance of the obstacles of his nature, be able to go forward in his sadhana?
I suppose it means that he can only progress slowly.

When a sadhak does not feel any aspiration and does not get any experience, what should he do to stick on to his sadhana?
Remember the Mother, remain quiet and call.

Is it possible for a sadhak to realise the Divine fully from the beginning by the power of his aspiration?
If there is the full purity of the psychic and spiritual aspiration, then that can happen—but it is rare.

I feel that aspiration is also increased by the Mother's Will and Grace. Is it not so?
Yes, but not if you do not aspire.

You have asked me to have ceaseless aspiration. But I find that it is the Mother's Force that kindles up the aspiration and strengthens and increases it in me. What personal effort on my part is then needed?
It is true that it is the Mother's Force that aspires in you, but if the personal consciousness does not give its assent, then the Force does not work. If the personal consciousness ceaselessly looks for the Divine and assents to the working, the aspiration and the working of the Force becomes also ceaseless.